The official website of the Government of India about census related information, has one important notification missing… the one dealing with the commencement of the exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR).

This is curious given the recent offer by the government to rethink certain provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in wake of nationwide protests. The double-blows of CAA-NPR are seen by many as a threat to the secular and democratic fabric of the nation. Therefore, it is odd that an official gazette notification would not appear on an official government website, especially one dealing with the census.

Now it has been decided to update the National Population Register along with the Houselisting phase of Census 2021 during April to September 2020 in all the States/UTs except Assam. A Gazette notification to this effect has already been published by the Central Government.

Curiously, the gazette also appears to be missing from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) website. While there was an October 10, 2019 press release titled All India Conference of State Coordinators, Directors of Census Operations for Census of India 2021 and updation of National Population Register in the country, the gazette notification could not be found anywhere in the sections titled Notices, Circulars, or Announcements on the MHA website. The press release may be read here:

Oddly enough, the only place where we could find a copy of the gazette was a Dadra and Nagar Haveli Gazette link that ended with nic.in instead of the new gov.in domain to which all government websites have migrated. The gazette may be viewed here:

The official website of the Government of India about census related information, has one important notification missing… the one dealing with the commencement of the exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR).

This is curious given the recent offer by the government to rethink certain provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in wake of nationwide protests. The double-blows of CAA-NPR are seen by many as a threat to the secular and democratic fabric of the nation. Therefore, it is odd that an official gazette notification would not appear on an official government website, especially one dealing with the census.

Now it has been decided to update the National Population Register along with the Houselisting phase of Census 2021 during April to September 2020 in all the States/UTs except Assam. A Gazette notification to this effect has already been published by the Central Government.

Curiously, the gazette also appears to be missing from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) website. While there was an October 10, 2019 press release titled All India Conference of State Coordinators, Directors of Census Operations for Census of India 2021 and updation of National Population Register in the country, the gazette notification could not be found anywhere in the sections titled Notices, Circulars, or Announcements on the MHA website. The press release may be read here:

Oddly enough, the only place where we could find a copy of the gazette was a Dadra and Nagar Haveli Gazette link that ended with nic.in instead of the new gov.in domain to which all government websites have migrated. The gazette may be viewed here:

This scathing open letter on face book exposes not just the ill-informed rants of the former minister and BJP Member of Parliament (MP) from Sultanpur, Maneka Gandhi but challenges her and her party to please enact a law not to use elephants (or cranes) in public gatherings, festivals and processions, which the writer says will get all Kerala’s support

This scathing open letter on face book exposes not just the ill-informed rants of the former minister and BJP Member of Parliament (MP) from Sultanpur, Maneka Gandhi but challenges her and her party to please enact a law not to use elephants (or cranes) in public gatherings, festivals and processions, which the writer says will get all Kerala’s support

Videos

In this SabrangIndia exclusive video, Pandit Anindya Banerjee, classical musician Kallol Ghoshal and folk researcher Niladri Sekhar DasSharma talk about the Influence of Islam on Indian Music and how the Sufis, known for their great love for music and acceptance of many indigenous customs, allowed Syncretism to flourish in Bengal.

In this SabrangIndia exclusive video, Pandit Anindya Banerjee, classical musician Kallol Ghoshal and folk researcher Niladri Sekhar DasSharma talk about the Influence of Islam on Indian Music and how the Sufis, known for their great love for music and acceptance of many indigenous customs, allowed Syncretism to flourish in Bengal.